ABSTRACT

Enzymes are biological catalysts, and generally proteins. They enhance the speed and specificity of reactions to such an immense degree that many people think of them as “magical”. However, as a purely emotional response and often without thinking, enzymes are treated as if they were not performing ordinary chemical catalysis. Such things can be found by kinetic analysis, and they will indicate whether “intramolecular communication” is occurring with our enzyme. Enzymes are ordinary chemical catalysts. The majority of enzymes have multiple subunits, and multiple active sites that function at the same time. The enzyme selected for this laboratory has only one substrate and should not display cooperative behavior, but expect to find both positive and negative cooperativity as we characterize other enzymes throughout our career. Likewise, many enzymes have more than one substrate, which can induce a phenomenon much like cooperativity.